Sissinghurst: An Unfinished History by Adam Nicolson

Adam Nicolson's grandparents were Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West and the historical detail with which he discusses his forebears and Sissinghurst's foundation is fascinating. Yet the meat of this elegant and perceptive story is Nicolson's account of how he dragged the house into the present day, with the help and occasional hindrance of the National Trust, its owners. Nicolson, by his own account not the worldliest of men, is an unlikely figure to mastermind the restoration of Sissinghurst, but his passion makes this a gripping account. It might now be "a major BBC series", but this tale is quite colourfully enough drawn on the page to have no need of TV pictures.